Airline Mayhem

For the third time in as many weeks another incident of airline employee misconduct has been reported on mainstream media. You may recall just last month (April 10, 2017) a doctor was dragged off a United Airline flight when he refused to give up his seat for an airline employee. Then last week (April 27, 201) a Milwaukee man was kicked off a DeltaAir Lines flight after going to the restroom while the plane waited for takeoff.  Now today another report of a family beingbumped from a Delta Airline flight over a dispute of the use of a seat (May 4, 2017). Apparently the father was told he had to hold his toddler child for the duration of the flight even though there was an empty seat next to him. I fail to believe that these are isolated incidents but rather examples of what may very well be business as usual in the airline industry. The only difference is that now with smart phones and social media, people are more inclined to post these type incidents than in time past. 

The United Airline incident received so much negative media coverage that congress held a hearing this week with airline executives to get answers about the forcible removal of a passenger on an overbooked flight. Not sure why this is only now becoming an issue, especially when this has no doubt been going on forever.  Truth is this could happen to anyone of us anywhere. Why do airline employees think it is okay to mistreat their passengers? Having been bumped myself off flights before, I gave no thought to it because I was traveling on a buddy pass and accepted that as a part of the risk I took for a discounted fare. However, I would never expect or accept that type behavior as a full fare paying passenger. 

Not only that, the manner with which these passengers were treated was inhumane. In the case of the doctor, who said it was okay to put your hands on another human being regardless of the situation? Last time I checked that was an “assault” and punishable under the law. What ever happened to approaching and treating a person with dignity and respect? Surely there are protocols in place to facilitate “overbooking” etc. i.e., asking for volunteers to give up their seats with or without incentives. I have heard a lot of the comments from both sides and I still say the airline employees acted irrationally.

Now, because of the backlash, the airlines are jumping through hoops trying to do damage control, i.e. apologies, out of court settlements, etc. All this could have been prevented/avoided if they had taken a moment to do the right thing from the start. Prevention is ALWAYS better than cure. How about training your staff how to handle difficult passengers and what NOT to do if the passenger refuses to give up their seat? Or better yet, how about some training in conflict resolution? Airline employees need to learn compassion and sensitivity, period!  We have all been there at one point or another when we felt our rights were being threatened. No doubt we have all also had bad days when someone gets on our last nerve. The trick is to find a coping mechanism with which to manage those emotions when people push your buttons to the point where you want to come out of character.   A kind word or gesture can defuse any situation. The trouble is, for some people, having the power to enforce rules is a drug that they can not handle.

It has been my experience that most industry are task oriented/driven instead of people focus. The service industry is one of those occupations where they need to be people driven instead of task oriented. Instead of focusing on the task of getting a seat for whoever they think needs it, why not focus on the safety and well-being of the passengers? What purpose does it serve to force a passenger off the plane and creating a scene which will no doubt get massive media attention and possibly cost the airline a small fortune in damage control? It would be more advantageous to just try and find alternative resolutions to the problem without making everyone on the plane aware that there is an issue.  

I am not sure how successful Delta or United will be in recovering from these incidents but from what I can see they are not learning from their mistakes. How else would you explain the fact that they are still violating their customers and causing more mayhem by bumping passengers in a very unprofessional manner? I don’t think no amount of apologies is going to make a difference. Until airline executives are willing to face the fact that the way their employees treat their customers is an issue that need to be addressed at the source/core, nothing will change. People need to be held accountable for their actions and just saying “sorry” or firing the at-fault employee is not the answer. I’m Just Saying. I got issues – what about you?

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